


Making the Most of the Night

by icantbelieveitshalloween



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pre-Timeskip, they train together and fall in love that's it, where's their a support intsys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-12
Packaged: 2020-10-14 09:36:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20598614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icantbelieveitshalloween/pseuds/icantbelieveitshalloween
Summary: Ashe wants to learn how to use swords, but Byleth won't let him, so he turns to Felix. The training grounds are occupied with a tournament, so they decide to sneak out and train at night.





	1. Chapter 1

Felix stood on the sidelines of the training ground. The center of his favorite spot in the monastery was currently taken up by a black magic tournament. This was not the first tournament, and he was sure it wouldn’t be the last. He found the tournaments frivolous, and they always seemed to get in the way of his training, so he despised them. He turned to leave when he saw a familiar tiny grey-haired boy creep into the training grounds. Felix found the sight odd, as the boy was an archer, and the archers’ training ground was outside. The grey-haired boy turned his head and lit up when he saw Felix. He walked up to Felix and spoke.  
“Ah, Felix! I knew I’d find you here! I needed to ask a favor!”

Felix opened his mouth to reply, but he was interrupted by a fire spell exploding behind him. “Let’s take this outside first. They’re holding another one of those damned tournaments.”

The two of them stepped outside of the training grounds. “Now, what did you want from me?”

“Well, I won’t beat around the bush here. Byleth only ever trains me in bows, and I want to learn how to use swords. I think it would help round out my skill set, so I figured I’d ask you!”

“Have you tried just asking Byleth to train you in swords?”

“I’ve asked, but she always turns me down,” Ashe frowned.

“Yeah, she’s a stubborn one.”

Ashe couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of Felix’s statement. “Yes, SHE’S the stubborn one,” he laughed.

If it had been anyone else, Felix would have punched them for that joke, but Felix had a soft spot for Ashe. He found the boy’s talk of knights and chivalry foolish, but the twinkle in his eye when he talked about it made him hold back. This soft spot is also why Felix did something he would do for no one else.

“Whatever. Look, if you want me to train you, I will, but the training grounds are kind of occupied for the time being, so what’s your master plan there?” Felix snidely replied. Even his usually biting sarcasm felt weak when he talked to Ashe.

“Well, why don’t we just meet here at night?”

Felix was taken aback. “Like, after curfew? I’m surprised someone like you would suggest that. I don’t think you have in you to sneak out.”

Ashe pouted at Felix’s condescending remark. “I’m more than capable of sneaking out! I used to be a thief, you know! I can sneak around better than you even can, I bet.”

Felix was once again taken aback. He couldn’t believe the goody two-shoes in front of him was once a thief.

Ashe continued, “Well, it was just to get money to take care of my siblings, but I was still a thief!” He puffed out his slender chest.

Felix laughed at the boy, an uncommon reaction for him. “Wow, Felix, I’ve never seen you laugh before!”

Felix was surprised with himself too. He was never one for laughter, but Ashe brought out a new side of him. “Forget about that. What time and where?”

“Why don’t we just meet back here at midnight? Try to get some rest beforehand so we’ll be prepared to train.”

“Works for me. Meet back here tonight at midnight. Don’t be late, and DON’T get caught.” Felix demanded the boy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i had to google proper sword stance for this one. if it's wrong blame wikiwood, which is a thing apparently.

It was 11 pm. Ashe was sound asleep, resting just as he’d promised, but Felix was restless. He sat in bed, staring at the ceiling. He normally didn’t have trouble sleeping when necessary, but he felt… well, he would refuse to say excited, but he was anticipating his training session with Ashe. At around 11:50, Ashe’s alarm clock went off. Felix didn’t set one, since at around 10 he realized there was little chance he falls asleep. The two of them changed into their training gear and snuck out of their dorms. They each independently made their way to the training ground. Felix seemingly arrived first, so he slid into the shadows to avoid detection while he waited for Ashe.

Ashe, however, was already there. He sidled along the wall up to Felix and in a swift motion, put his hand on the taller boy’s shoulder, stood on his tiptoes, and whispered, “Boo!”

Felix jumped away and unsheathed his sword to see Ashe holding his stomach from laughter. He grabbed the smaller boy by the hoodie and dragged him into the training ground, shutting the door behind them. “What do you think you’re doing?” Felix asked sternly.

Ashe finally stopped laughing. “I thought it’d be a funny way to prove to you that I know how to sneak around better than you! You should really work on your sneaking skills; I spotted you from 100 paces!”

Felix blushed, frustrated that the small boy he saw as less capable than him had bested him. “You could’ve gotten us caught with that laughter! What were you thinking?” Felix said, giving a realistic response to cover his frustration.

Ashe sulked. “I’m sorry; I just thought it would be funny.”

Felix felt bad seeing Ashe downtrodden, so he changed the subject. “Don’t worry about it so much; you look like a sad puppy. Let’s just start training.”

“Well, alright,” Ashe replied, “but I don’t know where to start.”

“We’ll start here. Catch!” Felix said, recklessly throwing a practice sword towards Ashe. Ashe deftly caught the sword by its hilt.

“Wow, I’m impressed.” Felix said, though Ashe couldn’t tell how serious he was being through his deadpan tone.

“Thanks?” Ashe replied, “Now what?”

“The first thing you need to know is stance. Now, stand with your feet parted, your stronger foot in front. Hold your sword out and bend your knees.”

Ashe followed Felix’s directions as well as he could. “Like this?” he asked.

Felix looked at Ashe’s stance. He was surprised at how close he had gotten, but he was holding the sword at the wrong angle. “Almost. Your sword is just a little off.”

Felix walked behind Ashe and placed his hands overtop the smaller boy’s. Both of their faces heated up from the sudden contact, but neither dared look at the other.

“N-now, just tilt it so it’s straight. You have it leaning right just a little.” Felix stuttered, barely able to keep his train of thought. Once Ashe was holding the sword properly, Felix quickly stepped away and composed himself. The moment lasted not even a minute, but both had completely lost sight of what they were doing.

“Okay, now what?” Ashe asked in a shaky voice.

“Now strike the air in any direction you please, then return to your starting stance. Don’t worry about your strikes being weak; this is just about being sure you can maintain your stance.”

Ashe followed Felix’s directions, but his actions were noticeably less calculated than the previous ones. Felix, however, seemed not to notice. He was intently focused on how Ashe’s hair blew while he struck, and how his freckles seemed to sparkle with sweat.

An hour passed of Felix training Ashe half-heartedly. “Well, Felix, what do you think?”

“I think you’re making good progress. Same time tomorrow?”

“It’s a date!” Ashe responded with a smile, that immediately turned into him turning away and blushing, “I mean, not like a DATE, but you know. I’ll be there.” Ashe turned away and quickly walked back to his room.

Felix laughed at the smaller boy getting flustered, but his own intense blushing was impossible to not notice.


	3. Chapter 3

The next night, neither Felix nor Ashe slept a wink between dinner and their late night training. Felix wasn’t one to show his lack of sleep, but it was taking a hit on Ashe.

“Is something wrong?” Felix asked, “You haven’t been doing as well as you were yesterday.”

“Yeah, I’m great! I just didn’t get any sleep before we met up, so I’m not used to staying up this late,” Ashe replied. His sword fell to the ground, unstable in his loose grip.

“You don’t seem fine. I’m not gonna help you train if you’re not at your maximum capabilities. We’re done for tonight.”

“I’m sorry Felix… but, if we’re done training, would you maybe want to just walk around the monastery?”

Felix was surprised by the offer. He expected Ashe to disappointedly walk back to his room.

“Alright, but if I catch you starting to fall asleep in tomorrow’s lessons, I won’t train with you ever again.” Felix was lying through his teeth, but Ashe didn’t catch on.

Ashe puffed his chest out again. “I can handle it!”

With that, the two of them walked out of the training ground. “Where do you want to go?” Felix asked.

“Let’s go to the dining hall!” Ashe replied. 

The two of them snuck past a multitude of guards and made it into the dining hall undetected. When they got there, Ashe immediately got to work pulling out pots and pans, as well as a large selection of ingredients.

“Care to help me make a midnight snack?”

Felix rolled his eyes. “Alright. What are we making?”

“Not so fast. First you have to put on your apron!” Ashe pulled out a frilly pink apron with a large heart on it that was normally used by Hilda, though Hilda had never actually DONE cooking duty, so it was spotless.

“I am NOT wearing th-” Felix began to protest, but Ashe came in close and tossed the apron over the taller boys head like he was playing ring toss at the monastery fair. In another swift motion he reached around Felix and tied up the apron.

“What do you mean you’re not wearing it?” Ashe laughed, “You already are!”

Felix was surprised by the sly move, but Ashe had proven time and time again how fast and dextrous he was. He decided not to protest; he trusted Ashe to not tell anyone about this. “Alright, let’s get to work.” Felix said, struggling to keep a straight face while wearing something so demeaning.

Ashe was shocked that Felix was keeping the apron on, but he was far too preoccupied with how close he had gotten to Felix in that moment. “O-okay,” Ashe began, “let’s make brownies! Mercedes and Dedue have been teaching me how to bake, so I’d love for you taste test my recipe.”

Felix was not one for sweets, but he agreed because he could tell Ashe was invested in this plan. He rolled up his sleeves and got to work mixing the dry ingredients while Ashe worked on the wet ingredients. Felix was hammering away so fast at the mixing bowl that powder was flying everywhere.

“Felix! You’re making a mess!” Ashe yelled in his small voice, “You need to be more gentle with the mixing. Like this.” Ashe got up behind Felix and put his arm over the larger boy’s well-defined arm, and began slowly moving, mixing the ingredients without spilling any.

“I don’t need help.” Felix said, pushing Ashe’s arm away, causing the small boy to fall to the floor. Felix really had pushed Ashe away because the heat in his chest from the scenario was unbearable, but he hadn’t intended to knock Ashe to the floor.

“I’m sorry, Ashe, I didn’t mean to push you so hard.”

Ashe stood back up, his eyes wide and glistening in the light. “Y-you said my name!” Ashe replied, “I’ve never heard you call ANYONE by their name!”

“I-irrelevant,” Felix replied, covering his flushed cheeks with his forearm, “Now, are you okay?”

Ashe was beaming from ear to ear, “Never been better!” he replied. The two of them quickly resumed work on the brownies, with the distance between them closing just a bit more.

Once the brownies were cooking, Felix and Ashe sat and chatted. Ashe rambled about knights and books he’d been reading, and Felix pretended to listen while examined the fine features of Ashe’s face. He thought about how Ashe would look down and play with his hoodie strings when he felt like he was talking too much, and how his eyes still had that twinkle, no matter how much he went on about the valiant knights in his tales. Felix couldn’t care less, but he was happy that Ashe cared.

Once the brownies were finished, Felix pulled them out of the oven, perfectly cutting the brownies into 4 pieces. They had used a tiny pan so as to not waste ingredients that the rest of the monastery might need, though the ounces of sugar and flour all over the floor told another story. The two of them sat across from each other to eat.

“So, what do you think of my recipe?” Ashe asked.

“They’re good,” Felix lied. In reality, the brownies were okay, but they were far too overmixed, and Felix loathed to admit that it was his fault.

“I think so too!” Ashe replied honestly, “Everything just tastes better when you make it yourself!”

Felix let a small smile form across his face as Ashe and him chatted further while finishing their food. By the time they returned to their room, it was well past 2 AM, but they were both far too restless to fall asleep. The next morning, Ashe did fall asleep in class, but Felix had no way of knowing because he was sound asleep right next to him. Felix only found out when both of them were forced to stay after class and do drills with Byleth. The two of them agreed to wait another night before training again.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope y'all like extended fluff

A day went by and both boys were greatly anticipating their next training session. Ashe was sound asleep by 9 PM, realizing how important it was to rest beforehand. Even Felix was asleep this time, motivated by the incident during class 2 days prior. When midnight rolled around, both of them arrived at the training ground at the same time.

“Hey Felix! Sleep well?”

Felix hated such pleasantries, but he replied, “Yes, I was able to actually get some rest tonight before training.”

“You haven’t been able to the past nights?”

Felix realized he hadn’t previously mentioned that. “Well, I usually only sleep 5 or 6 hours a night, so our training doesn’t actually interrupt anything.”

“If that’s the case, then why’d you fall asleep during class? We wake up at 8 AM, so surely you would’ve been able to get 6 hours.”

“Well, I just didn’t. Let’s train.”

Ashe was surprised by Felix’s sudden defensiveness. He hadn’t meant anything rude with the question, but he decided to push it out of mind and start working on his training. Today, Felix wanted Ashe to spar with him to really test how much he’s progressed. It had only been a day and a half of training, but Ashe was a fast learner and they were both well rested for once.

They stood apart from each other, with Ashe’s stance being slightly shakier than Felix’s. “Alright,” Felix began, “If you can get a single hit on me, we can be done for tonight. Otherwise, we keep training.”

Ashe didn’t take Felix’s statement as motivation. He quite liked their time together, so stopping training didn’t excite him at all. “How about this,” Ashe added, “if I get a hit on you, we do whatever I want for the rest of the night. It’d be a shame to miss out on this time when I get a hit on you in a minute.

Felix was surprised at the cockiness Ashe was exhibiting, but he agreed to terms. With that, they began their match. Felix immediately rushed in towards Ashe and pushed against the small boy’s practice sword. They looked each other in the eye from mere centimeters apart. Ashe had a smirk on his face that Felix didn’t understand, as he thought he was clearly at an advantage here. Felix’s confidence lasted only a moment though, as Ashe dropped his sword, ducked down, got around Felix, picked his sword back up, and held the light wooden sword to the taller boy’s neck.

“Got you,” Ashe whispered in Felix’s ear. Felix’s entire face heated up from a complex combination of emotions. Ashe stepped away from Felix, who took a chance to breathe.

“Well, you got me. What do you want to do for the next hour?” Felix replied, shaken up by Ashe’s tactics. Felix had a strength advantage, but he couldn’t beat Ashe’s speed, small stature, and dexterity.

“Let’s go outside to the forest right by here! I have an idea!” Ashe replied enthusiastically.

With that, the two of them walked outside. Ashe grabbed Felix’s hand and dragged him along through the forest. He couldn’t see Felix’s expression at the time because he was too excited to look back, but Felix was overheating from the sudden extended contact. When they got to Ashe’s destination, a clearing in the forest, neither of them broke apart their hands.

Ashe blushed and laughed, “Well, here we are. I wanted to come here to watch the stars and talk with you.”

Neither of them acknowledged their hands still being together. They got to the center of the clearing then let go to lay down in the flowers, but immediately, wordlessly brought their hands back together. They laid, spread out amongst the flowers, and stared up at the stars. Neither dared say a word, worried they would bring themselves back to reality and be too embarrassed to go on. Instead, Ashe simply moved closer, turning on his side and putting his head between Felix’s shoulder and his head. Felix pressed his head down into Ashe’s hair, and they just laid there staring at the stars until both of them slowly drifted off to sleep.

At 8 AM, classes were preparing to begin. Sylvain wandered the dorms, curious as to where his classmates were. “Hey Ingrid,” he asked, “have you seen Ashe and Felix?”

“No, why? I’m sure they’re just getting ready.”

“They aren’t in their rooms. I wonder where they went off to.”

“You went in their rooms?” Ingrid asked, but she left Sylvain and went to class, not actually wanting to know the answer.

Sylvain decided to search around, but he was surprised when he saw both of them sitting in class already. Both of them looked well-rested, but their uniforms seemed dirty. He chose not to question it.


	5. Chapter 5

The next night, Felix went to the training ground as usual, but Ashe was nowhere to be found. Felix internally panicked, wondering if last night had put Ashe off. He decided to check the forest clearing, deciding that if Ashe wasn’t there, then he could at least enjoy some time to himself. He wandered into the forest, but he wasn’t very well acquainted since all his training was indoors, so he tripped and fell into a thorny bush.

From the forest clearing, Ashe heard someone yell in a familiar voice. He had hoped to surprise Felix by being here, but he hadn’t given Felix the first clue of him being here, so he had no idea if he would even come. When he heard the voice, he recognized it as Felix immediately and felt both worried and relieved. He was worried that Felix was yelling, but relieved that Felix knew to come to the forest. He wandered out of the clearing and saw strands of dark blue hair sticking out of a bush. He walked up to the bush and pulled apart some of the brambles.

“Felix?”

“Ashe?”

“Oh good, it is you! Take my hand, I’ll get you out of there.”

Felix followed Ashe’s request and took his hand. Ashe pulled with all his might but it was just making the thorns dig into Felix more.

“Ashe, you know you can’t lift me out of here. Just use your nimble little fingers to get the thorns off of me.”

Ashe was in a bit of a daze. He still wasn’t used to Felix calling him by name, so every time he did it, it sent a spark of electricity through his body. He snapped out of it and got to work untangling Felix from the bush. Eventually Felix was able to stand up from the bush.

Ashe looked at Felix, whose uniform was now covered in holes, exposing the pale skin underneath. Ashe blushed and turned away. “A-are you alright, Felix?”

Felix rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah, I’m GREAT, unless you count the dozens of cuts all over my body.”

“I’m sorry Felix, I thought it’d be a fun surprise for you to find me in the clearing. I didn’t think this would happen.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Ashe. I just need to train in the forest more to get acquainted with it.”

There was a pause in the conversation and the two boys just looked each other in the eyes. “So now what? Do you want to go to the infirmary?” Ashe asked.

“No, I’ll be fine. It’s just some small cuts. Nothing I don’t get on the daily. Let’s just go to the clearing and talk.” Felix replied, taking the other boy’s slender fingers in his, this time without any embarrassment to speak of. Ashe, on the other hand, turned as red as a tomato. Regardless, he beared with the heat and the two of them walked hand in hand to the clearing, this time being willing to talk to each other.

When they got to the clearing again, they stood in the center of the flowers and linked both of their hands together, looking each other directly in the eye.

“So,” Felix began, “are we ever going to talk about all of this?”

“Well, we don’t have to,” Ashe laughed.

“I want to though,” Felix said, his tone getting more serious, “Ashe, I find you more bearable than anyone else at this monastery.”

Ashe laughed even more. “That’s something you would say. Look, I know you might not want to say it out loud, so why don’t we just show it instead.”

With that, Ashe stood on his tiptoes and leaned in for a short, sweet kiss. As Ashe started to break away, Felix cupped a hand behind the smaller boy’s ear and pulled in for a longer, deeper kiss. They both pulled back and fell into the flowers below them, laughing.

“So, how long until the others notice?” Ashe asked.

“Knowing them, I’m pretty sure we’ll have to tell them,” Felix replied in his usual deadpan tone.

Byleth was the faculty member on guard duty that night, and she had heard voices coming from the forest, so she decided to go investigate. She walked through the forest and saw a clearing. In the clearing, she saw Ashe laying on Felix’s chest, pointing at the sky and talking about constellations and the stories of the heroes depicted in them. It was her job to take them back to their rooms and report them to Rhea, but instead, she smiled, and walked back to the monastery to finish her rounds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok that's the end!! thanks for reading i love these dorks


End file.
